Containers come in various sizes and shapes. Containers for products for use in homes e.g. those for home care, personal care and foods come in relatively small sizes e.g. with a volume of from a few milliliters to a few liters. Products in these categories that are used to store and dispense liquid or viscous products e.g. those in watery, emulsion, lotion, gel, cream or semi solid forms require dispensing ports that are designed with closures that have to be leaktight when in the closed positions and dispense freely when in the open position. Further, the closures have to be relatively easy to operate such that the user does not have to use undue pressure, while at the same time, the closure in the closed position does not cause leakage of the material from the container.
Several types of closures are known and have been used for dispensing products from such containers. Well known closures are of the threaded screw, flip-top, friction fit, snap-fit, or gated closure types, among several others. The present invention relates to closures for bottles that dispense products for home or personal care especially personal care e.g. in dispensing liquids and viscous products like shampoos, conditioners, personal wash liquids and lotions. The bottles may also be used for storage and dispensing of cleansing products for homes and furnishings. The closure of the present invention is of the slider type where a disc shaped element reversibly slides on top of the dispensing port of the container, thereby enabling opening and closing of the dispensing port. Such a type of closure has been disclosed in the past. GB1094588A discloses a container closure which comprises a plastics part spherical valve member having an integral pin press-fitted into and slidable along a radial slot of a correspondingly shaped part-spherical depression in a boss on the top of a container. The valve may be slidden to a position generally parallel to the container top, so that its pin is parallel to the main axis of the container, when it closes the dispensing opening. The valve member acts as a pouring spout. The container top may be of tin, plastics or waxed cardboard.
There is a need in the art to provide for a closure assembly that is easy to operate with a simple horizontal push of the thumb or a finger which ensures leak tight opening and closing of the container dispensing port. Further, in a preferred aspect, the top of the container closure assembly is configured that it can be inverted to be stably placed on a table top to act like a tottle.
A tottle is a container, generally elongated that can be placed stably on its bottom surface on a horizontal plane like any normal bottle. A tottle, additionally, is so configured that the bottle can be inverted and placed stably on its top surface on a horizontal plane. This is especially useful when the contents of the container are very less and it takes a long time for the user to invert and shake the container so as to dispense the remaining contents, which is especially difficult when the contents are very viscous. A tottle, in such a circumstance will be placed on its head so that the contents are collected towards the dispensing end of the container, so that the user can dispense the contents without too much effort.
None of the prior known or published container closure systems including GB1094588 disclose all of the above desired advantages where the container can be used as a bottle or a tottle, has a closure system that is easy to push open and close with a simple horizontal push of the thumb and provides leak proof closing of the outlet port of the container even after continued use of the system for a long time.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide for a closure system for a container that is easy for the consumer to open and close with a simple horizontal movement using the thumb or a finger.
It is another object of the present invention to provide for a closure system for a container that is easy for the consumer to open and close with a simple horizontal movement using the thumb or a finger while being leakproof every time the closure is closed after use.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide for a closure system for a container that is easy for the consumer is open and close, is leakproof on closing and can additionally be used as a tottle.